Amend or emend?
amend is a verb meaning “To make better; improve”; emend is a verb meaning “To correct and revise (text or a document)”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) amend is about 58 times as common as emend.
What is the difference between amend and emend?
| amend | emend | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | verb |
| Meaning | To make better; improve To become better An act of righting a wrong; compensation | To correct and revise (text or a document) |
| Example | We amended the rules so that we could admit 20 more members to the club | none recorded |
| Forms | amends, amending, amended | emends, emending, emended |
| Pronunciation | /əˈmɛnd/ | /ɪˈmɛnd/ |
| In writing | 3.5 times per million words | about once in every 16 million words |
Sources: amend and emend in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of amend and emend
amend
- 1
To make better; improve
- 2
An act of righting a wrong; compensation
- 3
Abbreviation of amendment
- 4
To become better
- 5
informalClipping of amendment (“alteration or change for the better”)
I've sent over a new version of the doc with some amends
- 6
To make a formal alteration (in legislation, a report, etc.) by adding, deleting, or rephrasing
We amended the rules so that we could admit 20 more members to the club
emend
- 1
To correct and revise (text or a document)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, amend or emend?
amend appears 3.5 times per million words; emend about once in every 16 million words.
amend 3.5 times per million wordsemend about once in every 16 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search amend vs emend?
“amend vs emend” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“emend vs amend”, “amend or emend”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.